


Minerva McGonagall and the Burning of the Circle

by Skylar_Inkstone



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Also a Minerva adopts Harry fic, And kinda Hogwarts too, Characters Added As They Appear - Freeform, Gen, I love annoying people, I've decided to be irriating that way, Rating May Change, even if they're only mentioned once or even just in passing, who's decided to be irritating that way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylar_Inkstone/pseuds/Skylar_Inkstone
Summary: Minerva McGonagall found that the facts she had gathered only added up in one way, one she hoped was wrong. Alas, sometimes life is determined to make her want to commit homicide and she needs to learn how to be okay with that.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Harry Potter, Minerva McGonagall & Harry Potter, Minerva McGonagall & Poppy Pomfrey
Comments: 25
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

Professor Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts and renowned Transfiguration Master was stumped. None of the facts that she had carefully, painfully slowly gathered, made any sense. Or rather, it made sense, she just couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t supposed to be like that – _she_ wasn’t supposed to be like that.

“Screw it,” she suddenly muttered to herself. “Albus can fend for himself.”

~:|\\-/|:~

Petunia Dursley was having a perfectly normal day. A wonderful day, as a matter of fact. Her darling Dudley had just made the Little Football League (she was so, so proud), the boy was doing as he was told and hadn’t caused any trouble (yet), and Vernon had promised her a date night tonight at the new fancy restaurant. Unfortunately for her, the universe just didn’t seem to want her to have even a single decent day. The doorbell rang.

“What do you want,” she sneered at the witch (for it was clearly one of _them_ standing at her doorstep) in disgust as she opened her door.

“I’m here to check up on Harry Potter. Is he home?”

Petunia sniffed, and gave the offensive woman best look of distain. “I don’t see why you are here. That Headmaster of your school had informed me that the boy would not be checked up on.”

The witch’s lips thinned into a hard line. “Unfortunately, Headmaster Dumbledore was misinformed. I must insist upon seeing Mr. Potter.”

“You can’t just demand to come into _my_ home and expe-” Petunia cut herself off, eyes growing wide to stare at the wand that was suddenly in front of her face.

“Mrs. Dursley,” the witch started coldly, “you will be taking me to check up on Harry Potter or else I’ll simply curse you.”

“I-Yes. Of course.”

The witch gestured to lead the way, when there was a sudden loud crashing sound that came from the kitchen. Rushing to make sure that Dudley was okay, Petunia’s heart skipped a beat when she saw that the boy had somehow caused her stovetop to sink into the oven.

“You FREAK!” Blinded in a furious rage, Petunia swooped upon the small child, grabbing his arm with her nails hard enough to break skin. “You fucking FREAK! Look at what you did to my oven! LOOK AT WHAT YOU DID YOU _FUCKING_ FREAK!”

And, quiet suddenly, she found herself being thrown against the wall, unable to move. She felt her heart freeze in her chest when after the witch picked up the worthless boy, she turned to look at her. In no uncertain circumstances did that glare mean anything other than murder.

“I will be back,” hissed the witch. “And when I do, you will not be surviving that next visit.”

Then, to Petunia’s utter shock and horror, the witch simply disappeared with the freak still in her arms, a loud crack the only sound in the wake of Petunia being promised death. If the witch didn’t kill her first, Dumbledore would.

~:|\\-/|:~

Minerva couldn’t believe that awful woman. How in Merlin’s name that she had been Lily’s sister was beyond her. Clutching the small bundle against her chest, she apparated away from Number 4, Private Drive before she set the whole block on fire.

As soon as she felt the ground beneath her feet, Minerva took off running, racing past the Hogwarts gates, through the grounds and into the castle. As fast as she could, she rushed though through the halls, ignoring the stares and whispers of the students – they must have just gotten out of class – and ran towards the Hospital Wing.

The moment she burst through the doors, she gently set the ten year old boy down on the first bed she saw, yelling for Poppy.

“GODDAMN IT! POPPY POMFREY, GET OVER HERE!”

The mediwitch ran into the room, shocked that Minerva would swear in front of a student.

“That is not a student,” Poppy decisively said, staring at the very small form on her hospital bed. “Who is this Minerva?”

Poppy watched in horror as Minerva sank onto the bed that held the tiny child, tears welling in her eyes.

“Harry Potter,” she whispered hoarsely.

“No!” Poppy couldn’t help the gasp that left her lips, as she saw her best friend crying softly. “He’s too small! This child couldn’t be more than four!”

Minerva shook her head, very obviously trying to force back tears that wouldn’t stop. “Fix him. Please.”

Poppy felt a chill go up her spine. That last time she had been asked to ‘fix’ a student was one who had attempted suicide. She hadn’t been successful.

Gesturing to Minerva to get herself seated on the bed next to the one Harry was in, Poppy immediately started casting spells, trying to see how badly damaged the Boy-Who-Lived was.

~:|\\-/|:~

By the time Poppy was done, it was very late into the night. So late, in fact, that most people would call it early morning. Minerva, who had long been asleep, stumbled out of Poppy’s quarters.

“You need to stop letting me fall asleep,” the Scotswoman said irritably.

“You need to stop going to bed for only four hours a night.” Minerva took that if Poppy had the energy to scold her, nothing serious had happened.

“Oh, screw you,” Minerva scoffed. “How’s Harry?”

Poppy slowly shook her head. “I can’t heal him on my own. If I’m being honest, he’s going to need a specialized healer, one who handles abuse cases.”

“But he will get better?”

“With right care,” Poppy assured Minerva. “For now, I’m going to need some specific potions that we normally don’t keep stock of. Would you be willing to go and fetch Severus for me?”

Minerva nodded and headed down into the dungeons, stopping in front of the Potions Master’s personal quarters. “I must speak with Severus. It’s of utmost importance.”

The portrait that guarded Severus’s door huffed and disappeared, only to come running back. The wall opened and Severus, bleary-eyed and grumpy looking, came out.

“What,” he snapped, “is so important that it couldn’t wait for a most decent hour? You do realize that not everyone can function on no sleep?”

“This is not the time for this,” Minerva said in a tone of steel. “Poppy needs you urgently.”

The dour man rolled his eyes. “That woman always ‘needs me urgently’.”

Minerva’s lips thinned into a nearly nonexistent line. “I will physically drag you up there by your ear if I have to.”

Severus easily saw that the Scotswoman was angrier than he had ever seen her, gulped, and then dutifully followed the most formidable witch he ever had the misfortune of meeting. 


	2. Chapter 2

Poppy had never seen Severus as furious as he was now. Normally his wrath was a frozen thing, his sharp words biting into his victims. She’d never thought that it was really because he burned so hot when angered. His obsidian eyes became pits that reflected fire, his hair floating and twitching with uncontrolled magic. Poppy would never admit it, for even the Death Eater side of Severus failed to unnerve her, but this version of Severus Snape terrified her.

“YOU LEFT HIM WITH PISSTUNIA! OF FUCKING **COURSE** HE’S BEEN MISTREATED AND ABUSED!”

“Severus please,” Minerva snapped. “This is not helpful. Harry needs a Potions Master, not a seething five year old.”

Poppy winced, wishing – and not for the first time – that Minerva had slightly less Gryffindor tendencies towards self-preservation.

Lucky, just before Severus could rip Minerva a whole new sort of tail, Harry shuffled about in his bed and yawned.

“Wher’mi,” he slurred, the Dreamless Draught clearly still in effect.

Poppy immediately bustled over, checking his vitals and forcing liquids down the small boy’s throat and Severus couldn’t help but feel his heart go out to the child. Crouching down so he wasn’t looming over Harry, he met the boy’s emerald green gaze.

“Hello Mr. Potter. I am Professor Severus Snape. You are in the infirmary at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, of which both myself and your parents attended some years back.”

The child blinked and croaked out, “magic isn’t real.” Severus had to resist the urge to rip down Hogwarts’s wards so he could apperate and kill the Dursleys.

“Magic is very real,” he assured the small boy. “Would you like to see?”

Harry’s eyes impossibly widened and nodded.

“Very well.” Severus flicked his wand out of its holster and cast a spell that caused rainbow sparks to fly out and gently glitter down on the giggling child.

Severus startled when a hand touched his shoulder.

“Thank you Severus,” Minerva said in a tone that was unidentifiable to him.

“Thank you sir,” Harry echoed, softly with eyes round and full of wonder.

Severus didn’t quite know what was ailing him in that moment, but his chest hurt so much that he felt he could burst as he gave a small smile to Harry and received one of his own back.

~:|\\-/|:~

It wasn’t that Minerva was jealous that Severus seemed to connect so easily to young Harry, it was more that she was regretful that she couldn’t.

If there was even the slightest possibility, she would insist that Severus be the one to adopt and care for the small boy, but with his status as an ‘ex’ Death Eater and with a very real chance that Tom (she knew it was he after they dueled and Voldemort had called her ‘Minnie’) would return, it just wasn’t safe. And between the three of them – herself, Severus and Poppy – it was agreed that it would be she that would be adopting Harry.

“Only if the two of you become honorary godparents,” Minerva had insisted.

Severus had frowned. “Unless you are planning on blood adopting Harry, you will not be able to make us honorary godparents.”

Minerva had just stared down Severus. “Of course I’m blood adopting him! I refuse to allow Albus any possibility of returning him to those disgusting muggles!”

Poppy had just sighed and told them to inform her when they were ready for the ritual.

That had been three months ago, when Minerva had first rescued Harry, and he had made leaps and bounds physically. Minerva was in debt to both Poppy and to Lyra Everklin, the abuse specialist from St. Mungos for using complex magic in assisting Harry’s growth. And though Harry still had a little bit of ways to go to be in peak health, he was already racing about causing chaos as a ten year old should.

~:|\\-/|:~

When Albus had found out that Minerva had removed Harry from his sorry excuses for relatives, he had been furious. While he wished that Harry could grow up in a better, less hostile environment it just wasn’t possible. Not if they were to protect the boy. Much to his fury, when he tried to take Harry back to the Dursleys, he found that Minerva had blood adopted him. Eventually, Albus was forced to accept the new circumstances, though it did not stop his complex planning for the boy and his destiny. Indeed, Harry still needed trials and challenges if he was ever to become strong enough to face Voldemort.

~:|\\-/|:~

It was not an uncommon thing at Hogwarts for one to see Harry Potter sitting at the side of a class and practice whatever work he was assigned by Professor McGonagall. It was, however, a shock to see him sitting calmly at Professor Snape’s desk as the dour man taught, occasionally glancing over the small boy’s work and helping him. Several of his Slytherins asked what he was doing – after all, wasn’t he a supporter of the Dark Lord? The dark man would sneer in disgust and explain that he was only doing it to gain the continued support and trust of Dumbledore and his following, which was enough reassurance for them.

Harry, however, thoroughly enjoyed the attention that he was being given after years of loneliness and pain. The majority of the students got over their initial awe of the Boy-Who-Lived and were delighted to have him about.

Though there was some concern over the darker Slytherins, it was found that they took after Severus’s lead and tried to befriend the small boy in hopes of becoming useful to their families by making such a powerful connection. Harry, though still a child, had done most of his growing in an abusive environment, and as such was able to see behind the pretty lies and false smiles. But he figured that as long as they didn’t do anything to harm him, he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it. After all, despite what Auntie Minnie (she insisted that he call her so) assured him, he knew that he could easily be sent back.

Harry was also startled to find that the Potions Master (who he called Uncle Severus unprompted) had this connection to him that felt all white and glowy, which made him feel protected and safe. It was to the amusement of almost the whole staff that Severus seemed to have unlimited patience for the child. It became doubly hilarious when Harry refused to allow his hair to be cut some time later after getting settled in at the castle, insisting on growing it out like his Uncle Severus’s.

“Will you let it go,” he would snap in the teacher’s lounge whenever someone brought it up.

The others who were present would laugh and change topics, always to Severus’s relief. After all, it would be much harder to keep any sort of cover if his caring tendencies toward the boy got confirmed as genuine by certain parties. And if his cover was blown, that much greater the risk and danger to his new godson. He would not let that happen, at any cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *screeches with delight* I FINISHED A NEW CHAPTER YALL I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF  
> Also, just a quick PSA. Hopefully, next school year, I will be taking a gap year. As such, the place where I will be for a year will make it rather difficult to access a way to write and update, so this is a friendly warning that I may disappear for a year.  
> Please feel free to come and chat with me on Tumblr @our-blood-is-our-ink or on Instagram @skylarinkstone I love hearing from yall!

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a bad person. No, seriously. I procrastinate work, my inner muse refuses to work with me on fics that REALLY need to be updated, and I only seem to want to write one-shots with absolutely no ending. Hopefully, this one will be different. Come find and chat with me on Tumblr @our-blood-is-our-ink! I love hearing from y'all. <3 <3 <3


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